Justin Moore counts among the earliest artists signed to Valory Music Group, the Big Machine Records imprint. His style occupies the overlap between conventional mainstream country and the bolder attitude of bro country. That approach took shape in the first years of the 2010s and produced multiple Billboard Country Airplay number ones, beginning with “Small Town USA” and “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” and continuing through later successes such as “Somebody Else Will,” “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home,” “We Didn’t Have Much,” and “With a Woman You Love,” the last a track from the 2023 album Stray Dog that confirmed his staying power. His eighth album, This Is My Dirt, followed a year afterward.
Born in Poyen, Arkansas, Justin Moore first played music while still in high school. After graduation he performed briefly with his uncle’s band, then moved to Nashville to pursue a career in country music. There he connected with producer Jeremy Stover, whose ties to Big Machine head Scott Borchetta led to Moore’s signing with the newly launched Valory Music Group in November 2007.
Following the 2008 digital release of “I Could Kick Your Ass,” Big Machine sent “Back That Thing Up” to radio, where it rose to number 38 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs during the latter half of that year. Over the ensuing months the label built momentum for the debut by promoting Moore online, issuing the digital EP The “You Asked for It” EP in June 2009, and working “Small Town USA” to the top of Billboard’s Country Airplay chart ahead of the full-length Justin Moore, which arrived on August 11, 2009. The album entered the chart at number three and yielded the follow-up hit “Backwoods,” which peaked at number six. “How I Got This Way” closed the album’s singles run by reaching number 17 in 2010.
Moore’s second album, Outlaws Like Me, appeared in June 2011 and debuted at number one. It delivered two Country Airplay chart-toppers in “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” and “Til My Last Day,” separated by “Bait a Hook,” which climbed to number 17. Late in 2011 he issued a holiday cover of Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run” that reached number 58 on Country Airplay. The year’s accomplishments earned him an American Country Awards nomination for Breakthrough Artist in 2012.
“Point at You,” the lead single from his third album, Off the Beaten Path, was released in March 2013 and peaked at number two on Country Airplay, clearing the way for the album’s number-one debut upon its September 17 arrival. The follow-up single “Lettin’ the Night Roll” also topped Country Airplay. During summer 2014 Moore appeared on two radio hits: he contributed vocals to Brantley Gilbert’s Top Ten Valory single “Small Town Throwdown” and joined Vince Neil on a country rendition of Mötley Crüe’s “Home Sweet Home.” “This Kind of Town” was later extracted from Off the Beaten Path and reached number 44 on Country Airplay. These cumulative successes prompted the Academy of Country Music to name Moore New Artist of the Year in 2014, just five years after his debut on the Valory label.
Kinda Don’t Care, Moore’s fourth album, entered the chart at number one following its August 2016 release and produced two Country Airplay leaders: “You Look Like I Need a Drink” and “Somebody Else Will.” He returned in July 2019 with his fifth album, Late Nights and Longnecks. Its opening single, “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home,” topped Country Airplay, as did the subsequent “Why We Drink.” The nostalgic “We Didn’t Have Much” also reached number one in 2020, paving the way for Straight Outta the Country in April 2021. Later that year “With a Woman You Love” became another Country Airplay number one, followed in 2022 by the duet with Priscilla Block, “You, Me, and Whiskey.” His sixth album, Stray Dog, arrived in May 2023 and peaked at number 25 on the country chart. The next year he scored a modest hit with the title track “This Is My Dirt” from the album issued in October 2024.
